So...the Powell experience.

I'd been a big advocate for Powell on here for a while and wanted him as our coach after Smith, which was unrealistic because his Cas team were the best team in the league at the time and he'd never have come to us then. So I was very pleased we got him after Price. He had a track record of improving multiple clubs...he transformed Leeds from being big name underachievers to a hungry young team which TS then took forward to glory. He made Featherstone the dominant team in the Championship. Then he took a Cas team which was going down under Ian Millward and in 4 years despite not having much money and having to sell his best players, took them to top of the league and the Grand Final.

So why did things go wrong so badly with us?

1. Powell may be past his time as a coach in SL. It happens. Sometimes the game moves on and a coach isn't able to achieve the things they used to. It happened to Millward at Wigan and Cas, it happened to Noble at Salford, it happened to TS towards the end of his time with us. There were signs that it was starting to happen to Powell towards the end of his time in Cas.

2. The Cas players he brought over failed. When a new coach is coming in bringing in his new methods its helpful to bring a few of his trusted generals over to help bring the new culture into the dressing room and act as on field advocates for the coach. Especially important when you've been brought in for a mandate to change things like Powell had. But you really need those guys to succeed, otherwise it immediately gets the existing players' backs up because they think the new coach has brought in his old cronies who aren't as good as us. Whether through injury or lack of form or just being past their best as players, these trusted generals were flops.

3. Recruitment generally was poor. Whether this is Powell's fault or somebody else's fault I don't know, poor recruitment at Wire has predated Powell. But if you're going to do a big dressing room clear out - which we needed - you have to make sure the guys you bring in are better than the guys you move on. We didn't, we brought in an inferior set of players. Reminds me of Graeme Souness at Liverpool being brought in to clear out an aging dressing room which he'd inherited from Dalglish, and then signing a load of players who were nowhere near Liverpool standard. It can cripple the club. We already did this once before at the end of the DVDV era when we basically cleared out talented but underachieving side and then Steve Anderson brought in a load of Championship standard players. Cullen then had to come in and deal with Kevin Crouthers, Matt Sturm under contract.

4. Players having grievances. I don't know the ins and outs here but we are getting enough snippets being fed to the press by ex players and those around them that players are leaving Warrington with grievances about the way they are being treated. I don't know whether this is a case of prima donna players not being used to not getting their own way, or the club being unreasonable in the way they treat players. But whatever the reason, if players feel aggrieved you have a locker room who isn't pulling together for the team and you're going to keep losing. The only way out of that is just to move those players on and get in a group of players who are happy. Unfortunately we seem to have moved out a lot of players last year with grievances but then the new guys have grievances too.

There are probably more reasons that others could add but those are the main ones for me.

What baffles me is that we looked very promising after those first 8 games. Still much to improve but looking good.

Then the perfect storm arrived. We were reduced in the pack prior to key games against Wigan and Saints. And concurrently, there was the Mcguire shenanigans which split the players in the camp and this was, to me, the most damaging.

I've stook up for Powell because, like Sally and sone others, believed we were getting a good coach. I still don't think he's as bad as some make out but far from perfect at the same time.

Without the 'perfect storm'. Ie. going into those 2 games with more forwards available (remember, we weren't that far off in either game), and the main issue regarding the split in the camp, I'm certain things would have panned out differently. But sadly we'll never know.

Let's just hope our new manager can most importantly build the team spirit again and get players to re-bond and put the Mcguire thing behind us.

Fingers crossed everything sorts itself out.

Clearly Powell had to go but at the same time I am disappointed that once again player power has won. Like the post from saddened the club has spent heavily (maybe not wisely) and the players dictate what happens when they don't like what's going on. Same thing happened at Saints with Cunningham and we have seen Tony Smith take the underperforming Cullen and Lowes team to three challenge cups, LLS and grand finals. When we won the challenge cup in 2019 it was the players that decided what games they want to play and what games they don't. I just wonder how much money was on the table prior to the challenge cup final in 2019.

I thought the Powell project was the right way to go. We had all heard the rumours about players and I hadn't seen the footage until wires71 shared the clip of Cooper barging into Price in that semi final but we cannot accept stuff like that. I was quite happy for players to be moved on and to clear the decks but the McGuire fiasco appears to have created a rift that Powell was unable to heal.

Unfortunately we are never going to pay off a complete squad of players and get a whole new squad in, it will always be the coach that takes the fall and a lot of the players know that all too well.

If the players start that game, then you need to have the balls to drop them or send them into the wilderness on loan. Not pander to them. Imagine Shaun Wane pandering to players?

I'd rather lose playing Green giving his all, than lose playing Dudson taking the (and then moaning about not being able to drop him) for example.

PS : The Cooper barge was basically our chance to sneak a look into the problems within - manifested for all to see. Price played it down and Cooper faced no action. The optics of it were terrible and I still think it persists. Until that attitude is rooted out once and for all, we will never compete for the big prize. Could you imagine Shaun Wane being barged into...?

Your 4th point is the one that intrigues me, this whole business of unhappy players is something we seem to have had for years and now in more recent times we have comments about the coach losing the dressing room etc etc. wires71 says we need a Director of rugby for me he is right because the issues we are having regarding players needs to be dealt with asap, we can’t have players being the controllers. Having a Director he can hopefully deal with these issues and keep the players focused on playing and the coach just cracks on with the training.

Before Smith came to the club the culture at Warrington was way beyond poor we all know the stories etc and I believe it’s still here in some ways. We need a complete clear out and stop the jobs for the boys thing until all the old remnants of the time before and during Smith have gone.

That passage quoted from Saddened is the most depressing thing I've read about our club. Players opting out of training? Pathetic. This isn't a [idrop in centre[/i. It's supposed to be a professionally run sports club. No wonder fans of other clubs see us as a joke club. It turns out we are. I always thought Powell was supposed to be some kind of gruff disciplinarian. Again, no.

We've always had a reputation as a bit of an [ieasy street[/i club. Players going out on the sauce with Cullen. Turning up for training under the influence, etc.

Then there's the thing with Cooper and Price. THAT'S A DISGRACE.

Too many have it too easy. A 3 year contract extension for Currie? I don't think Wigan, Saints or Cats were ringing his agent's phone for availability, so why the overly generous contract? We've already fouled up with King's.

When new players arrive here, they might as well be told that the smoking jackets and gramophone records are kept over there, just come and go as you please. Don't worry about up and coming youngsters, they'll just be ignored or loaned out.


The new coach has a BIG job on his hands.
We're in a big hole.

That's how I feel about it too. Obviously the Wakefield result made Powell's position completely untenable. However, did the players know that he would be fired if we lost at Wakefield (they presumably did, given how many leaks come pouring out of the club these days) and then make damn sure that's what happened? If that's the case, what a slap in the face for all the loyal fans who made the trip to Wakefield in hope and good faith. And if the players suddenly decide to start putting in some effort again now that they've got their way, we're all supposed to just cheer them on as if they are heroes? What a depressing mess. Please, can we find someone to put some pride and professionalism back into the club, before we all just fall out of love with it once and for all?

The biggest mystery for me. Has had a handful of eye catching games since returning from injury years ago.

It's going to require a bigger change than head and assistant coach. We tried that 18 months ago.

I really wanted Powell to succeed and got swept up in it earlier in the year when we went on that run. I'm sad that we are having to start again and none of the potential candidates excite me very much.

The thing that really upset me about Powell was his treatment of young players. Players in positions where we had limited depth chucked out on loan, and young lads making their first appearances seemingly the scapegoats for any defeat - while duffers like Dudson and Matautia seemed to have endless chances.

Our honours board of Yorkshire coaches is graced by Plange, Lowes and now Powell. Not a happy hunting ground.

Powell got found out Big Time

Just couldn’t hold his Ale at the weekly Booze Ups

Became untenable

If you saw my post I said that” All I can say is Wakey is a very big game, a very big game!”
The quote came straight from a director.

Powell knew he had to win the game to finish the season with pay.

He’d me thinking he was Jigsaw from the SAW movies.

Re: Player grievances. We have a player welfare manager in Kylie Leuluai don’t we? He reports to Karl. It’s not like players couldn’t get past Powell in some sort of blatant autocracy.

Unfortunately I feel these apparent problems are not causes of the club’s current state, but that they are symptoms. I think we have a well-intended but laissez-fair and complacent culture. We need a competent and no-nonsense CEO (someone in the character mould of Powell ironically) along with a director of rugby and a modern objective thinker of a coach. Whether we can find any (let alone all three) in the current RL market is extremely unlikely.

I don’t feel confident about the near future at all, and feel we are about to repeat the same old cycle.

The next coaching appointment is massive, we can’t afford to rush it or get it wrong. I don’t think Powell is as strong a character as his gruff exterior portrays, quite the opposite and I believe Holbrook is a lot tougher than he comes across. We will certainly stabilise and improve under Holbrook and I’m not sure Holbrook will stand for any tinkering in his plans.